It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Bloomington-licensed Fox affiliate WYZZ-TV (channel 43) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cunningham Broadcasting.

WMBD-TV's transmitter is located on Pinecrest Drive in East Peoria, a section of Groveland Township, Tazewell County.

[2] Airing an analog signal on UHF channel 31, it was originally owned by John Fetzer along with WMBD radio (1470 AM and 93.3 FM, now WPBG).

Fetzer had previously won a construction permit for VHF channel 6 as early as 1949, but those plans were shelved when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made Peoria–Bloomington an all-UHF market.

[4] The WMBD stations were sold to Midwest Television Incorporated of Champaign (owner of fellow CBS affiliate WCIA) in 1960 for $1.85 million.

[6][7][8] WMBD moved to its current location on North University Street in June 1977 and still remains Peoria's only commercial television station with studios in the city itself.

On December 1 of that year, Nexstar and the Sinclair Broadcast Group entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) in which WMBD took over WYZZ's operations.

On the same day, WYZZ's weeknight 9 p.m. newscast was included in the upgrade and the station also began producing a two-hour weekday morning show for the Fox affiliate.